


I Saw You In The Crowd

by cowardnthief



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Music, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Bisexual Dorcas Meadowes, Bisexual Remus Lupin, Darlene - Freeform, F/F, F/M, French Sirius Black, Gay Sirius Black, Indian James Potter, Lesbian Marlene McKinnon, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), POV Remus Lupin, POV Sirius Black, Pansexual Lily Evans, Punk Rock, University, Welsh Remus Lupin, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:55:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23475811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cowardnthief/pseuds/cowardnthief
Summary: Remus is an English Lit major and Sirius is in a punk rock band. James is an idiot (as well as Sirius' best friend) and Lily is tired of his shit. Marlene is lead guitarist and Dorcas is the lovesick drummer. Peter is still trying to figure out what's going on.(Wolfstar with a side of Jily and Darlene)
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 16
Kudos: 40





	I Saw You In The Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this started out as a one-shot but I have no self control, so here we are... I kind of love it, but I'm not sure if I'm going to continue it. Sort of depends on what y'all think.

Going out was not Remus’ thing. He preferred the safety of his own dorm room in his own bed, a book that was comfortable and familiar in his hand like Mansfield Park or the Iliad and a hot cup of tea to warm him up if his blankets failed him. Lily always told him he was ridiculous, though.

“What is the point of being at uni if all you’re going to do is read?” she huffed one day, rather exasperatedly with her hands on her hips after walking into his dorm room to find him reading Little Women.

Remus carefully tucked his bookmark in between the pages of his book and closed it, putting it on his shitty nightstand and replacing it with his mug of earl grey tea. “Please think about what you just said,” he retorted with a smirk. “And knock next time you come in. Believe it or not, that’s how people usually announce that they’re entering a room.”

“Okay, obviously the point of university is to study, blah blah blah,” Lily said, ignoring his second comment. She popped down on Remus’ bed so hard that it bounced, nearly sending the scalding water of his tea flying into his face - or worse, his book. “But it’s also to have fun. You didn’t party at all in high school and if you don’t do it now, you’re going to go through your whole life having people think you’re a prude.”

“Good,” Remus replied with a teasing smile, taking a sip of his tea. His too-long, knobbly fingers encircled the mug, which warmed them. He shifted on his bed.

“You are completely impossible.” Lily wore a look on her face akin to a fish, which Remus knew meant that she didn’t have any more ideas on how to convince him to go out. He hoped the argument was over, but then she shut her mouth and an “I’ve-got-you-now” look appeared on her face. Shit. “But the event I’m talking about is at a pub. Very low-key, just this student garage band and a bunch of slightly drunk uni students. You can just have water…?”

Remus snorted. “Why are you so desperate to go?” he asked, sitting forward to look Lily in the eye properly. She gave him a harsh glare and he gulped. Lily knew how to be intimidating if she wanted to be. “Fine!” Remus relented, putting his hands up in surrender. “Fine, I’ll come to your fucking gathering, no questions asked.” Lily broke out into a grin.

“You will not regret it.”

“I’d better not,” Remus grumbled, pouting and returning to his book as Lily got up to leave.

Suddenly, the door was pushed open and in walked his room-mate. James’ curly hair was sweaty as he ran his hand through it and his usually brown skin was flushed red. He was breathing heavily and took a deep drink from his water bottle. He usually showed up to the room like this, fresh from football training. When he saw Lily, his face reddened even more (if it was possible) and his mouth immediately twisted into a lopsided and admittedly endearing grin.

“Evans!” James said, slamming his bottle down on his own nightstand, making it wobble. “What brings you here?”

Lily huffed and crossed her arms, tossing her long red hair over her shoulder. “Remus, actually,” she said. “The fact that I ran into you is an unfortunate byproduct. Don’t you usually come here later?”

“Coach let us off early,” James said. He tried to lean against the doorframe but missed the first time he tried, falling into the empty space. Remus laughed a little, using his jumper-covered hand to stifle the noise. James, looking embarrassed, shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts and stood up straight instead. “Why, do you have my schedule memorised anyway? Stalker.”

“Simply to know how to avoid you,” Lily quipped, brushing past him out the door. Remus thought she had left when she popped her head back in to talk to him, resting her hand on the doorframe. “I’ll text you the details, yeah?” Remus nodded and she walked out of the dorm room with a flick of her hair.

“Your friend is _hot_ ,” James marveled out loud, stripping off his sweat-soaked shirt and into a hoodie, flopping on his bed.

“So I’ve heard. From you, anyway,” Remus said. “She hates you.”

“Eh, she doesn’t know me yet,” James said, waving dismissively. “What are the details?”

“I’ll tell you if you promise not to be there,” Remus said. His phone made a noise and he opened the text without looking at it. It was Lily, with the name of some pub and the time of the event.

“No promises!” James said, grinning cheekily. “Got to make sure you keep your hands off her, don’t I?”

Remus snorted. “Yeah, whatever,” he said, flipping his phone around so that it was angling towards James and leaning over to show him the text Lily had sent. “Just this thing at a pub. I think a band is playing?”

James smiled and then outright laughed when he saw the information, falling back on his bed with his chest heaving. “I didn’t think Lily was one of _those_ girls.”

“What girls?”

“Groupies,” he said casually. Remus’ mouth dropped.

“Shut up, Lily’s not like that,” he snapped, snatching his phone towards his chest.

“Yeah? Is she a big fan of punk rock?” James teased. “Trust me, a lot of the ‘fans’ of that band of the straight female variety go to their concerts for the oh-so-attractive bass player.”

“And that’s amusing why?” Remus said. “I’d be more worried that the oh-so-attractive bass player would steal her away than me.”

James laughed and shook his head. “Nah.”

Remus rolled his eyes a little. “Very self assured, aren’t you?” he said. A thought popped into his head. “Oh, and Lily’s pansexual. Don’t straight-wash.” he clicked his tongue in playful disapproval, shaking his head.

James shrugged as if that didn’t really bother him. “Don’t you worry, soon she’ll see what a lovely, unique personality I have and fall for me,” he said. “Simple as that.”

“Maybe you could stop bothering her and showing up wherever she goes first. Then maybe she’ll like you,” Remus said, opening his book again. “If you’re lucky. Very lucky. You don’t know the insane amounts of luck you’d need for Lily to like you back.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” James grumbled, opening up his phone.

* * *

Sirius, Marlene and Dorcas were in one of the university music rooms that he booked for practice. They were trying to squeeze in one more rehearsal before the show at eight that night but Marlene wasn’t focused enough to tune her fucking guitar and Dorcas was too busy improvising a solo to look at the sheet music. Sirius had dumped his bass in the corner and was pulling at the black hair tie on his wrist when his phone buzzed from where it lay on the table. He released the hair tie with a snap and winced slightly at the sharp pain, picking up his phone and swiping the text open. It was from James.

**LILY EVANS IS COMING TO UR DUMB GIG**

Sirius laughed at his phone screen. Neither Marlene or Dorcas noticed.

_ooh wow. Your hopeless crush?  
I’ll be sure to r o m a n c e her._

**don’t you dare, black.**

_no promises…_

**honestly, i wouldn’t put it past you  
to bang a girl just to piss me off.**

_ha. you’re probably right._

“Sirius!” Marlene said, stomping over. Her heavy Doc Martens were probably making imprints on the old floor. “This is a rehearsal, get off your phone.” She grabbed his phone, turning it on silent and pocketing it. She ran a hand through her blonde hair so it was out of her face and tucked her hands in her armpits like an athlete.

“Oi!” Sirius shouted in protest. He tried to snatch his phone back from Marlene but she dodged before he could reach her. “Well, you weren’t doing anything, anyway.”

“ _I_ was tuning my guitar,” she said. “The instrument I use in order to play in this band. _You_ were texting your boyfriend.” Marlene and Dorcas used to call James that teasingly sometimes. It had recently just turned into a regular substitute for his name.

“Alright, alright,” Sirius said, stretching his back muscles and yawning. He picked up his bass again and Marlene stepped up to the microphone. Really, they were lucky the room was soundproof or they’d have been banned from the whole building ages ago. “What are we playing?”

Marlene named one of their original songs, Kerosene On Dynamite. It was one of the ones with more overdramatic lyrics, derived from entries in Dorcas' teenage diary during her emo phase, much to her dismay. It was originally written as a joke until it became one of their most popular songs.

Dorcas counted them in, starting with a quick drum solo before the band burst into melody. Marlene sang the verses softly and screamed the lyrics to the chorus louder and rawer as the song progressed. Sirius was always impressed by what she could do with her voice. His fingers did the work for him. He tuned out, his left hand working through various chord progressions and his right picking at the strings quickly as if they had a mind of their own. Soon, Marlene was playing the last chord and Dorcas crashed the cymbals a final time.

Marlene ran a hand through her hair again and took a long drink of water. “Fuck, that hurts my throat,” she said hoarsely, coughing a little.

“Yeah, but it sounds great, baby,” Dorcas grinned, resting her drumsticks on the floor by her feet and cracking her knuckles. Marlene gave Dorcas a tired, lopsided smile and walked over, kissing her gently. Dorcas slid a hand in Marlene’s hair and twirled a strand around her finger. Sirius shook his head and grinned to himself. The two of them were always really goddamn cute. He’d be worried about dating within the band, except that they had been seeing each other back in high school even before they formed the band and were going steady for three years. They barely ever fought.

“Okay, I get it, you’re adorable and the rest of us are alone,” Sirius cut in, trying to sound annoyed but probably failing.

“What do you mean? You have James and Peter,” Dorcas said. Marlene was already half in her lap, straddling her legs, but she climbed off at Sirius’ comment and Dorcas released her grip on her waist and hair.

“Alright, let’s try one of our covers,” Marlene said. Her voice was back to normal. She checked her lipstick on the black screen of Sirius’ phone to make sure that it wasn’t smeared - it wasn’t, but the red colour had mixed a little with Dorcas’ subtler pink shade. She gave the phone back to Sirius, practically tossing it into his hands as she picked up her guitar again. They played a few more songs until they realised that Marlene’s voice would be properly screwed for that night if they didn’t stop.

Marlene was winding up the cord that connected her electric guitar to the speaker and Dorcas was packing up the drum kit so that they could take it to the venue later that day. Sirius wound up his own cord quickly and set his bass down somewhere where it wouldn’t get damaged. He pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket to see another text from James.

**hey, I heard that Reg might be  
coming to your gig? I’m not sure, I  
just thought you’d want to know.**

**Pete told me.**

Sirius’ heart dropped.

_that’s more than a little obsessive.  
haven’t my parents stalked me enough?_

**I guess not. sorry, man.**

**just be careful. don’t do anything  
** **you wouldn’t want them to know**  
**about, yeah?**

Sirius didn’t reply. He felt sick, but he tried to put on a careless persona for Marlene and Dorcas as he sauntered casually over to them, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“You want to hear something fun?” he asked.

Marlene shot him a look halfway between confusion and “oh, no.” Dorcas just looked at him blankly. “What?” she asked.

“Reggie’s coming to the pub tonight,” Sirius said. He couldn’t hide the nervousness in his voice as he looked down at his long nails. He had gone so long without chewing them.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Marlene snapped, yanking at the cord she was wrapping up so hard that the speaker shuffled a little along with the movement. Dorcas heaved a heavy sigh and accidentally dropped the cymbal she was holding, letting it fall to the floor with a loud crash.

“ _Jesus_ , you two, don’t you care if we have instruments to play tonight?” Sirius said. “We won’t if you keep carrying on like that.”

“ _Sorry_ ,” Dorcas said, picking up the cymbal gingerly. It wasn’t damaged, thank God, but there was a small dent in the floor that she elected to ignore. “But … we’ve known you forever, and your family has been _controlling_ you for all that time. When are you going to stop caring what they think?”

“It’s not that I care what they think, Dorcas, and you know that,” Sirius said. He kicked at the floor absently. “If I could, I’d tell them all to get fucked and never see them again. Only I can’t, because it’s more than that. So I’ll just be a little more careful with what I do in public today. We’ve done it before, it’s not a big deal.”

“Yeah, just don’t give some bloke a blowjob in a dark corner this time,” Marlene sniggered. Sirius rolled his eyes playfully. The atmosphere had been way too serious, so the lighthearted jab was welcome.

“Alright, alright, I’ll keep it in my pants,” Sirius said, putting his hands up in mock surrender. “But that means you two as well, okay? No kissing each other, and no hugging or being generally a couple. My family still has to believe you’re my girlfriend, Marlene.” Dorcas gave a fake, dramatic sigh and grabbed her girlfriend’s sleeve, tugging her towards her.

“Do you hear that, my dearest love?” Dorcas said, throwing her arms around Marlene’s waist theatrically and laying her head on her stomach. She rubbed her cheek into Marlene’s skin. “This utter _fiend_ ,” she gestured to Sirius, “is trying to keep us apart so that he can have you for himself!”

Marlene smiled indulgently and kissed Dorcas’ forehead, leaving a slight red mark in the shape of her lips on her skin. She extracted herself from Dorcas’ arms and ruffled her hair with a crooked grin. Dorcas only pouted, flicking Marlene’s hip as she stepped away to continue wrapping up the cord. Sirius checked his watch, realising the time and going for his bag as quickly as he could.

“Fuck, I have Art History now and I’m practically already late,” Sirius spat. He deeply regretted having a six o’clock class on a Friday, especially when most of his lectures were on Monday through Wednesday, but it was the last slot available for any Art History class that semester and he needed it for his major. “I’ll see you at the venue?”

“Yeah, sure, don’t worry about it,” Marlene said, waving him off. “We can bring your equipment.”

Sirius said his thanks and dodged out of the room as quickly as he could over to the building where his lecture was. He managed to sneak in just as the professor, a middle-aged woman called McGonagall. She spoke with an Irish tilt, and had high cheekbones and a piercing gaze. Sirius was sure she had eyes on the back of her head.

Remus, who was sitting in the front, was trying his best to take notes, but Art History was neither his favourite nor his best subject. He preferred the safety of creative writing or the familiarity of analysing the classics. Professor McGonagall also talked so quickly that it was nearly impossible to keep up with what she was saying, even for Remus, who took pride in his number of words-per-minute. He left the class with a stack of practically illegible notes in a scrawl that was even messier than his regular writing.

Lily was waiting outside for Remus, as promised, and linked her arm through his when he walked out the door and started walking. “Alright, so here’s the plan,” she said, her words measured evenly as if she had been practicing.

“Of course you have a plan,” Remus teased. “Can’t go out without knowing exactly what we’re doing.”

“Sh,” Lily said, slapping Remus on the arm gently. “We’re going over to my place so I can get dressed up, and then back to yours so you can change.”

“And what, exactly, is wrong with what I’m wearing?” Remus frowned, looking down at the outfit he had haphazardly thrown together that morning. It consisted of a large black hoodie that hung off his body, branded sweatpants rolled up at the ends and a pair of Vans he had slipped into before running out the door for his morning class. Lily winced.

“Nothing really…” she said tentatively. “It just screams ‘tired uni student’ rather than ‘hey, I look presentable sometimes but still pass my classes.’”

Remus snorted. “Okay, fair,” he said. “I’ll let you dress me, but nothing outlandish. And just this once.” Lily grinned and clapped her hands together. “Oh my God, I am doing _exactly_ what you want, aren’t I?”

Lily pulled Remus along to her dormitory, which was in the same building as Remus and James’ but on the floor below with all the girls. Technically speaking, girls and boys weren’t allowed in each others’ dorms, but no one really abided by that rule. A good percentage of the students were queer in one way or another, anyway, so the gender segregation didn’t do much to prevent _coitus_.

Lily’s roommate, Mary, wasn’t there at the time, so Lily took that as an opportunity to litter the floor with all of her clothes as she paraded them in front of Remus. He had no idea how she had so many dresses he was sure he had never seen before. He (clearly) didn’t know a lot about fashion, so he was fairly useless to Lily in that regard, but he managed to give her a little bit of guidance, and she eventually decided on a black dress. It was fairly tight around the top and the skirt was loose and scandalously short. She paired it with her denim jacket and a pair of black ballet flats. Lily tied her hair back messily as she started on her makeup.

“Lily?” Remus asked. He was lying on his back on Lily’s bed, staring at the ceiling where Lily had stuck a few of her high school certificates from various competitions. Things like international debating competitions, being voted Head Girl, first and last editions of the school newspaper that she edited (there wasn’t a lot Lily _hadn’t_ done.)

“Yes?” Lily asked, applying black mascara to her eyelashes.

“Are you just going to the show for the bass player?”

Lily laughed. “What makes you say that?”

“Just something that James said,” Remus said, sitting up so he could look at Lily. “Apparently, a lot of the female audience goes to their shows because the bassist is hot, or whatever.” Instantly, he realised that was the wrong thing to say as Lily turned around to glare at him.

“He said that?” she snapped. “Next time you see him, tell his sexist arse that I’m not going to see the band play for a boy.” Remus nodded quickly and Lily turned around to face the mirror again, continuing to put on her makeup. “ _Because_ , in fact,” Lily continued, “I’m going to see them for a girl. Marlene McKinnon. Look her up, she’s on the university website.”

Remus laughed and pulled out his phone, searching for the name McKinnon on the uni’s website as instructed. He came up with a smiling photo of a punk-looking girl with long blonde hair and a few piercings on one ear, as well as a septum ring. “Yeah, she’s hot,” Remus conceded, shutting off his phone and tossing it to the side.

“Eh, I think she’s dating someone anyway,” Lily said dismissively with a wave of her hand as she let her hair out and began to twist the top half into a bun. “Not sure who. I’m not stalking her or anything. I just want to see her perform.”

“Yeah, _perform_ ,” Remus teased with a chuckle.

“Shut it,” Lily frowned, finishing up with her hair. She stood, tossing a few things into a black handbag. “Come on, down to your dorm. James better not be there.”

He was, unfortunately for Lily. To Remus’ amusement, he was too open-mouth stunned by Lily’s appearance to do much more than gape stupidly. Remus was fairly certain that he was going to spontaneously combust when he got a good eyeful of her arse from behind as the wind pushed up her skirt.

“Oh, run along now, James,” Lily said, exasperated by the look on his face. She grabbed him by the arms, which in turn made him even redder in the face. Remus giggled slightly at his expression. Lily eventually managed to push him out of the dorm room and led Remus into the bedroom, where she promptly started going through all of Remus’ clothes and tossing them on the ground as she went as she had done her own.

“Hey!” Remus cried indignantly as some of his perfectly folded jumpers fell crumpled to the floor, but if Lily heard, she either didn’t listen or care. She found a pair of black skinny jeans and threw them at Remus without looking. He managed to catch them, but just barely. “What was that for?”

Lily gestured as she started to look through his shoes, a collection of mostly Vans and Converse. “Go on, now, put them on,” she said. Remus walked into the small bathroom and changed into the jeans, bumping into a few things as he did so because his lanky form was too big for any reasonably sized space, let alone a room that was practically one foot cubed. As soon as he stepped out, Lily was telling him to take off his hoodie and replace it with a large, knitted mustard jumper. Remus tiredly did as she asked, also replacing his Vans with a cleaner pair of white Converse.

Remus tucked in the front of his jumper and cuffed the ends of his jeans, as was his habit, and spun around in front of Lily with a flourish. “What do you think? You’d better like it because I am _not_ letting you subject me to that torture again,” he deadpanned, pulling the sleeves of his jumper over his hands.

“Mm,” Lily said, squinting as she tilted her head. She looked Remus up and down critically. “Ooh!” she cried, clapping her hands together excitedly and doing a small jump. Her hair bounced on her shoulders. She ran over to her handbag and rummaged through it. “Remus, do you trust me?” Lily seemed to find what she was looking for and put her bag to the side, turning to face Remus.

Remus was confused until he saw what Lily was holding. “Oh, _fuck_ no,” he groaned, running out of the room. Lily pursued him.

“Why?” she whined. “You’d look so hot!”

“Lily, I am _not_ some pretty boy who wears makeup,” Remus said, shielding his face as if that would stop Lily from coming near him. He hated the idea of wearing makeup. He had tried it once in high school, back when he thought he was completely gay, allowing some of the popular girls to cover him in foundation and itchy glitter. He hated how it looked and had taken it off as soon as he could.

“It’s not makeup, it’s just eyeliner,” Lily said. “Remus, _please_ just try it, you would look so good. And if you really hate it, you can take it off. I have makeup wipes right here. I promise it will be understated.”

Remus peeked at Lily. He would have liked to say that she was giving him irresistible puppy dog eyes, but what she was really giving him was a dark glare that read “you had better do what I want, or I will end you.”

“ _And_ you said I could dress you up,” Lily said as if that sealed it.

Remus groaned. “Fine. This night’s going to be all about you, huh?” he said.

Lily pounced on him, pushing him down on a chair in front of the mirror as if afraid he would change his mind. The feeling of the wet brush dragging across his eyelids was foreign, and Remus wanted to flinch, but he also didn’t want Lily to have to do it again, so he stayed put. When Lily finally removed the brush, his upper eyelids felt caked and dry and heavy. He didn’t like the feeling.

It was a few seconds before Lily said softly, “Right, then. Open your eyes.”

Remus did as she asked, bracing himself for the worst but did a double take when he saw himself in the mirror. He _did_ look hot, and it was slightly infuriating. The eyeliner made his eyes look wide and sort of endearing. The black made his green-hazel irises look brighter and more vivid in contrast. His mouth fell open, but when he saw Lily smirking behind him he closed it quickly.

“Alright, so it doesn’t look bad,” Remus relented. Lily grinned even more smugly. “But I hate how it feels. It feels like my eyes are covered in gunk.”

“Yeah, well, beauty is pain,” Lily said, flopping down on Remus’ bed. “Now you know how it is to be a girl.”

Remus turned around in his chair to look at Lily. “So, are we leaving or what?”

Lily checked her watch with a frown. “Shit, yeah,” she said, jumping up again. “Band starts playing at eight or so. The pub’s a fifteen minute walk from campus so we should head off now.”

Remus nodded and stood along with her. He looked at his reflection in the mirror one last time. Lily had done a good job at choosing his clothes, but he wouldn’t admit it to her. She’d just use it for leverage another time she was trying to convince him to go out. Lily checked her hair again, taking out a bobby pin and putting it back in again. When she was satisfied with how she looked, she linked arms with Remus.

“I promised Mary that we’d meet her at our dorm and go together.” There was something light about Lily’s tone, and Remus knew exactly why.

“Fuck, Lily, you’re not still trying to set us up?” Remus said as the two of them walked back down to the girls’ dormitories.

“I might be,” Lily grinned. “Mary has a thing for you.”

“But I don’t have a thing for _her_ ,” Remus said icily.

“Oh, shut up, it’ll be fun.”

“It feels like every four seconds you’re dumping a new piece of unfortunate news on me.”

Lily didn’t say anything more as the two of them arrived at the door of her and Mary’s dorm where Mary was waiting for them. She dressed in a pretty sky-blue dress and runners, covered with a black cardigan. She wore her soft blonde hair curled over her left shoulder. She waved at Remus shyly. He grimaced as he waved back. Lily wasn’t doing Mary any favours by allowing Remus to lead her on.

Lily let go of Remus’ arm to give Mary a hug. The three of them started to walk together, but Remus didn’t know what to say. So he said nothing. For a full fifteen minutes while Lily and Mary talked about one thing or another. _Maybe_ Mary’s _going to the gig for the bass player_. The thought made Remus laugh a little. In his head, of course.

The three of them arrived at the pub, a small place called the Hog’s Head. It was mostly full, the band and place being popular among the university students. Covers of famous rock songs were blaring on the speakers and the whole place gave off a vibe that told Remus that the floor had been vomited on multiple times that night. His stomach flipped nervously, but Lily was already walking inside with Mary at her tail. He couldn’t back out now.

Reluctantly, Remus stepped through the door.

**Author's Note:**

> More chapters coming soon (probably).


End file.
